The honey, nor enquire whence ’tis derived. | |
Be satisfied – you are not all abandon’d. | |
325 | SARDANAPALUS |
bethink you, | |
Were not I yet a king, should I be mortal; | |
That is, where mortals | |
ZARINA | |
Your children’s sake! | |
SARDANAPALUS | |
330 | I am the very slave of circumstance |
And impulse – borne away with every breath! | |
Misplaced upon the throne – misplaced in life. | |
I know not what I could have been, but feel | |
I am not what I should be – let it end. | |
335 | But take this with thee: if I was not form’d |
To prize a love like thine, a mind like thine, | |
Nor dote even on thy beauty – as I’ve doted | |
On lesser charms, for no cause save that such | |
Devotion was a duty, and I hated | |
340 | All that look’d like a chain for me or others |
(This even rebellion must avouch); yet hear | |
These words, perhaps among my last – that none | |
E’er valued more thy virtues, though he knew not | |
To profit by them – as the miner lights | |
345 | Upon a vein of virgin ore, discovering |
That which avails him nothing: he hath found it, | |
But ’tis not his – but some superior’s, who | |
Placed him to dig, but not divide the wealth | |
Which sparkles at his feet; nor dare he lift | |
350 | Nor poise it, but must grovel on, upturning |
The sullen earth. | |
ZARINA | |
Discover’d that my love is worth esteem, | |
I ask no more – but let us hence together, | |
And I – let me say | |
355 | Assyria is not all the earth – we’ll find |
A world out of our own – and be more bless’d | |
Than I have ever been, or thou, with all | |
An empire to indulge thee. | |
[ | |
SALEMENES | |
The moments, which must not be lost, are passing. | |
360 | ZARINA |
Instants so high and blest? | |
SALEMENES | |
ZARINA | |
So gentle with me, that I cannot think | |
Of quitting. | |
SALEMENES | |
Ends as such partings end, in no departure. | |
365 | I thought as much, and yielded against all |
My better bodings. But it must not be. | |
ZARINA | |
SALEMENES | |
ZARINA | |
SALEMENES | |
ZARINA | |
SALEMENES | |
My | |
370 | Certain, and of the boys too, our last hopes; |
’Tis not a single question of mere feeling, | |
Though that were much – but ’tis a point of state: | |
The rebels would do more to seize upon | |
The offspring of their sovereign, and so crush — | |
375 | ZARINA |
SALEMENES | |
They are safe beyond the Median’s grasp, the rebels | |
Have miss’d their chief aim – the extinction of | |
The line of Nimrod. Though the present king | |
Fall, his sons live for victory and vengeance. | |
380 | ZARINA |
SALEMENES | |
Your children, with two parents and yet orphans – | |
In a strange land – so young, so distant? | |
ZARINA | |
My heart will break. | |
SALEMENES | |
SARDANAPALUS | |
385 | Must yield awhile to this necessity. |
Remaining here, you may lose all; departing, | |
You save the better part of what is left, | |
To both of us, and to such loyal hearts | |
As yet beat in these kingdoms. | |
SALEMENES | |
390 | SARDANAPALUS |
I may be worthier of you – and, if not, | |
Remember that my faults, though not atoned for, | |
Are | |
Grieve more above the blighted name and ashes | |
395 | Which once were mightiest in Assyria – than— |
But I grow womanish again, and must not; | |
I must learn sternness now. My sins have all | |
Been of the softer order — | |
I do not bid thee | |
400 | Easier to stop Euphrates at its source |
Than one tear of a true and tender heart – | |
But let me not behold them; they unman me | |
Here when I had remann’d myself. My brother, | |
Lead her away. | |
ZARINA | |
405 | Behold him more! |
SARDANAPALUS | |
ZARINA | |
What shall he die alone? – | |
SALEMENES | |
Have lived for years. | |
ZARINA | |
410 | And lived upon his image – let me go! |
SALEMENES | |
use some fraternal force, | |
Which you will pardon. | |
ZARINA | |
Sardanapalus, wilt thou thus behold me | |
Torn from thee? | |
SALEMENES | |
415 | If that this moment is not gain’d. |
ZARINA | |
My eyes fail – where is he? | |
[ | |
SARDANAPALUS | |
She’s dead – and you have slain her. | |
SALEMENES | |
Faintness of o’erwrought passion: in the air | |
She will recover. Pray, keep back. – [ | |
420 | Avail myself of this sole moment to |
Bear her to where her children are embark’d, | |
I’ the royal galley on the river. | |
[ | |
SARDANAPALUS | |
And this too must I suffer – I, who never | |
Inflicted purposely on human hearts | |
425 | A voluntary pang! But that is false – |
She loved me, and I loved her. – Fatal passion! | |
Why dost thou not expire | |
Which thou hast lighted up at once? Zarina! | |
I must pay dearly for the desolation | |
430 | Now brought upon thee. Had I never loved |
But thee, I should have been an unopposed | |
Monarch of honouring nations. To what gulfs | |
A single deviation from the track | |
Of human duties leads even those who claim | |
435 | The homage of mankind as their born due, |
And find it, till they forfeit it themselves! | |
[ | |
SARDANAPALUS | |
MYRRHA | |
Far off a voice of wail and lamentation, | |
And thought — | |
SARDANAPALUS | |
440 | To enter here till sought for. |
MYRRHA | |
Perhaps, recal some softer words of yours | |
(Although they | |
Because I ever dreaded to intrude; | |
Resisting my own wish and your injunction |